Originally Posted by RawAlex

The touring and the t-shirt sales don't happen without the record. They are part and parcel of the same thing. The record company puts up the money to record, puts up the money to press the record (physical product), puts up the up front money for the band to live while they are recording, and that money all comes out of the gross before anyone gets paid. Album production in the 80s and 90s was insanely expensive, meaning that records that sold millions often netted the artist nothing more than the advance they got to live on while recording it.

However, those same artists go out with record company A&R support, tour, make live appearances, interviews, music videos, and such all of which supports their live shows where the artist money is made.

No record, and the rest of this doesn't happen.

The "free the music, fuck the record company" people always forget that before there was a fire, there was someone with a matchbook lighting a fire. Without them, you just have a pile of cold wood.